Not Broken, Just Bent
by The-Finale-Hope
Summary: Tessa Gray has had problems with guys in the past, and right before her last year of high school starts, her aunt dies and she has to move out of New York City and live with her brother in London, England. Will she have more problems with guys or will she find her one?
1. Chapter 1

All my clothes, check. My books that I couldn't bear to sell, check. My mother's clockwork angel necklace, check.

I sighed. Why did Aunt Harriet have to die, she wasn't that old. She had to get cancer didn't she. It wasn't her fault, what am I thinking. I'm just in a sour mood because I have to leave New York. I have to leave my home. My friends. They're going to say their goodbyes in about an hour. When I'm going to leave to go to London.

I shook my head. I needed to get through my checklist. Passport, check. _One_ way tickets to London, check. Four hundred eighty seven dollars and thirty seven cents, check. I wonder how much that is in pounds? I'll check Google later. Anyways, cell phone, check. School supplies list, check.

Well, that's it, I thought grimly, it all fit in two suitcases. I had to sell it all my other stuff for Aunt Harriet's funeral, I even had to sell some of my books. But it was worth it, she was a mother to me, due to the fact my real mom died when I was three. I was only able to get her a small funeral, so I couldn't invite everyone. But I brought who was most important. But even after all the tears, farewells, and the fact she's now six feet underground, I don't want to accept she's gone.

A silent tear slid down my cheek and I hastily wiped it away. No time for that, you have to get ready to leave. I looked and my watch, 8:20. I sighed again. Ten minutes till i leave my old home forever, a hour till I'm saying goodbye to my friends, an hour and a half till I leave New York City.

Well, there are two good things about going to London. One, I get to go to one of the best high schools in London, The London Institute. Sure its great and all, the personalized classes, great teachers, the fact I on a full scholarship. But really, The London _Institute_. Why _institute_, why not high school, or call it a private school, it would sound so much less scary if it wasn't called an institute. And two, I get to see Nate again. I haven't seen him in like what, four year? I can't wait to see him again. I was in eighth grade when he left, now I'm going to start my senior year, sorry year twelve, and now I can see him again.

I looked at my watch again, 8:29. Better leave now, I might not be able to leave if I stay here any longer. I put my luggage in the back seats, then slipped into the front seat. I don't look at my house as I drive away. I don't see the for sale sign marked sold. I don't see the yard where I laughed with my friends. I drive away, avoiding all memories that do with that house, good and bad.

Traffic was horrible, I arrived five minutes later then what I told my friends. I wonder if they waited for me? I walked into the airport was, three steps in I was attacked with a group hug.

"Guys! I can breath!" I yell breathlessly.

"Come on now, let Tessa breath. We want her to make it to London in one piece." Alec's voice cuts through the clump of people blocking me from seeing anything. Soon everyone lets go.

"Thanks Alec." I said as I straightened my shirt. Izzy started to help and fix my hair.

"Izzy my hair is _fine!_" I swatted her away. And she can back like an annoying fly.

"You need to look nice, who knows, the plane could be full of good looking boys. And promise you will call the second you land and call daily and if you can call text us. Remember to get the numbers of the good looking ones and pass them on to me. Got that?"

"I'm not looking for anyone to _date!_" I practically screamed, gaining weird looks from the people walking near use. I lowered my voice to a near whisper, "You know how every other boy turned out."

Izzy gave me a sad look. "Well you should, not all boys are like that. Its that or you will live alone in an attic full of books." Izzy countered.

"Those last three words sounded pretty nice to me." I gave her a sweet smile.

She rolled her eyes. "_You know-_"

Clary cut her off. "How about we be happy before Tessa leaves and save the 'YOU MUST GET A BOYFRIEND' talk for later."

"Everyone who agrees with Clary say I." stated Jace

There was a course of I's, and a defeated looking Izzy.

She mumbled a 'fine'.

I sighed, for what seemed the millionth time today, and look at the clock. it read 9:58, I sighed again.

I looked at the floor, "I have to go guys, I only have twenty two minutes until my plane leaves. I don't want to miss is." I looked up to see a wall of people, then I felt the need to take a big breath as all the oxygen in my lungs were pushed out. I hear the sniffles of my friends holding back tears and the and the goodbyes that were whispered.

They all backed away, tears in their eyes.

Clary spoke first, "You promise to apply for the college here right?"

"Without a doubt." I replied.

"Remember to call." said Izzy

"I will."

"And text."

"I will."

"The second you get off that plane."

"I will." _I should just make this a habit jeez._

"And get a boyfriend!" Izzy shouted, again causing use to get strange looks from people.

"I wi-NO!" I turned a bright shade of pink.

"Make sure he's cute!" More looks, and an even brighter face.

"Izzy…" Alec scolded, causing me to snicker.

"Hey!" Izzy yelled. "No teaming up!"

"Bye guys."I gave them one last smile, and walked to my gate. Too soon enough I was boarding my flight. And before I knew it. My plane was leaving New York City for London.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to the two reviewers, they really helped motivate me to continue with this, I might answer them next week I'm just really tired today. Anyways I think I will update Saturdays, and if I'm busy on Saturday I will update on Sunday.**

**Enjoy the story :)**

_Hey guys. Just landed at the airport. I'm texting like I promised but I need to get to my brother's house. TTYL :) _I put my phone away then walked to the baggage claim. Nate said he would pick me up there. I finally got to the baggage claim, after asking many people how to get here, and went to my plane's carousel. I got my two suitcases, then walked to the side. I pulled out my phone and called Nate. _Riiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiing. Hello, this is Nathaniel Gray, sorry I can't talk right now, I'm probably busy. Please leave a message. BEEP! _I was so startled it took me a seconded to speak, he had completely lost his american accent for a British one.

"Umm. Hey Nate it's me, Tessa, umm, your little sister. I'm at the airport, are you coming to pick me up or are you already here? Please call back, love you." I stood there waiting for him to show up, call, or even text. After awhile it didn't seem likely. Scanning the crowd I look for his face in this unfamiliar crowd and gaze down at my phone to see if he responded.

An hour passed with no sign of him. _What should I do? He never gave me his address, he just said he would pick me up. _I start to pace and fiddle with my mothers necklace. _What if his car broke down? What if he got in a car accident? What if_\- I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. _Nate? _I whipped out my phone as fast as humanly possible. _FINALLY TESSA! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HARD IT IS NOT TO TALK TO YOUR BEST FRIEND FOR EIGHT HOURS! I know you can't talk right now, but tell me when you can how's London? _I sighed, it was just Izzy. Although I love my friends dearly, now is not the time. I shove my phone back into my pocket.

"Tessie?" I snap my head up as I hear my name. _Wait, Tessie? Only Nate calls me that... _I go silent.

"Tessie, is that you?" The voice spoke out again.

"Nate?" I finally find my voice. I look around until I find his silly smile plastered on his face, his blonde hair has fallen into his blue eyes. My face quickly broke into a smile quite similar to his.

"Nate!" I squealed while running up to him. With three strides I embrace him in a bear hug.

"I'm so sorry, Tessie. I got held up a work and I got your message right before my phone died." He explains as he wraps his arms around me. I look him in the eye.

"It's alright Nate. I understand." Pulling him tighter, I bury my face into his chest. I smelled something I couldn't put my figure on. I pull away.

"Nate, you smell kinda funny, are you okay?"

He waved his hand as he were hitting my words away.

"Let go home, shall we?" He walked over to my bags and grabbed one.

"Umm, sure." I replied while walking over. I picked up my other bag.

"Come on this way." He turned around and walked where I assumed his car was parked. I followed him and started to take in all the ways that he's changed. Obviously he's older, but his eyes look impossibly more wise than they did four years ago, but somehow still maintained a childish glint in them. _I wonder why? That's a good thing, right?_ With his age, he'd gotten taller, even a bit taller than me. But the thing that hit me the most was how he spoke, he sounded so different with his newfound accent. I really shouldn't be surprised, he has spent four years here after all. Nate took out his keys and opened the trunk of the car. We put my bags in the car, then closed to trunk. I walked over to the right side.

"Tessie." Nate finally spoke, sounding amused.

"What?" I started at him. _What's so wrong about being on the right side of the car?_ He gestured to the car. Squinting my eyes, I looked into the window and saw the steering wheel. Letting out a simple 'oh', I walk over to the left side of the car and get in.

"You're in England now Tessie, things are different here." He puts the keys in the ignition, then quickly turned around and grabbed a box sitting in the back seat. I barely notice as I look out the window, thinking about how much my life might change here.

"Biscuit?"

"Why would I want a biscuit?" I asked, somewhat offended. I turned to look at him to see a cookie being handed to me.

"Nate, that's a cookie."

"It's called a biscuit here." He moved the cookie closer.

"It's a cookie."

"Biscuit." I took it and he smiled.

"I'm still calling it a cookie though." He sighed and started to drive. The car was attacked with rain drops, blurring our vision and creating streams on the windows. Oddly enough, the rain drops made a comforting sound as they hit the window in an irregular pattern. Nate turned on the radio. A song was playing but I really didn't care, I'm far too busy thinking about school. _Will I make new friends? Will the classes be hard? What if the teachers are really mean? What about the other students?_

"So?" Nate awkwardly started a conversation, looking sheepish, "How do you like London so far?"

"Seeing that I've only seen the airport and the roads…." I trailed off.

"True. Well, umm. Are you excited for, umm, school?"

"Nervous, more or less. I don't like how I'll be a new student during senior ye-"

"It's called Grade Twelve here."

"What! That makes no sense! It sounds so _boring_! I mean-"

"Accept it, Tessie. You can't call yourself a senior."

"But I've been waiting my whole high school career to call myself a senior!"

"Deal with it, Tessa. You'll just have to accept it."

"You know what? I don't care. I'm a senior, and I'm not changing my mind."

"You're going to confuse the other students."

"It'll be fun." I gave him _the _look. The one I always gave him when we were little, the one that said '_you're fighting against me, you aren't going to win, and you know it'._

He sighed. I smiled, the look never failed. The rest of the ride was quiet, leaving me to think about everything. School, homework, my brother, the rain, the city, it's people. After about ten more minutes Nate pulled into a driveway.

"Say hello to your new home, Tessie."

I looked up at the house. It had two stories, painted an off white with gray gutters. The roof has drab black shingles, and the house is finished with green shutters. There's a garage connected and the yard is splattered with washed out green grass, it almost looks sick. Following Nate to the door, I watched as he got out his keys, and opened the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm back!... Sorry for not updating almost five months... I really wanted to update earlier, but school got in the way and I was upset with this chapter for the longest time. You should expect me to update irregularly. I am so very sorry. Enjoy the chapter! :)**

* * *

Streams of light shine through the blinds as my eyes flutter open. Begrudgingly, I glance over to my clock. It reads 7:58. Letting out a muffled cry, I bury my head into the pillows and curl into a ball. The soft bed becomes a cloud, tempting me to drift back to sleep. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! I shoot straight up, frantically looking for my alarm clock, to which I silence with swing of my fist. Groaning, I somehow get out of bed, which leaves me shivering. This leaves the trip to dresser. After managing to drag myself over to the dresser, I begin to search for comfortable clothes.

I was about halfway through my hair when my monstrosity of an alarm clock went off again. This resulted in me to panic and get my brush stuck in my hair. In an attempt to break free, I yank my hair too hard and make my head sting. After removing the brush and launching it across the room, I attend to my screaming alarm clock. I set it back onto my night stand, and slide down to the ground. Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and- BANG! BANG! BANG!Nate's voice came from the other side of my closed door.

"Tessie! Why on earth is your alarm clock going off at eight in the morning? It's summer vacation, you should be sleeping!"

"Sorry Nate, I just want to explore London a bit. Maybe even find a good book store!"

"Do you even have enough money to buy a book? Or are you just going to stare at them?" Nate sounded annoyed.

"I think I have enough for at least one book! And why would I just stare at the books?" I cried in outrage.

"You've done it before! Remember when you were ten and and I had to drag you out of that library because all you did was stare at all the books!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!" The annoyance in his voice went away, and was replaced with humor.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Thank you for finally seeing my point of view!" I grinned. Nate sighed and when spoke again. He sounded tired.

"Be home by one and make your own breakfast, I'm going back to bed."

"I will, Nate!" I smiled and went back to brushing my hair.

Once my hair was somewhat presentable, I tossed my brush back onto the dresser and slipped into my favorite pair of blue jeans and my light blue t-shirt. I slipped on my worn out sneakers, grabbed a random sweatshirt -it's gray, then ran downstairs into the kitchen. I put on the sweatshirt the searched the room for any good food. I found some waffles in the freezer. I put them into the toaster then hunted for some butter. I found none, I'll have to tell Nate we need more. I looked for something else, and the best I could find was chunky peanut butter. I grabbed a plate and a knife, walked over to the toaster and-

Pop!

I dropped the plate as the waffles popped out of the toaster. I immediately picked up the plate and put it on the counter. I took the golden brown waffles out of the toaster and gently tossed one onto the plate, and put peanut butter on the other. After putting a generous amount of peanut butter on the waffle, I set down the waffle then put peanut butter on the other.

Once I was done, I grab a glass and fill it with milk. Then I sat down at the small, wooden table, and began eating. While I was eating, I thought about yesterday. After we got to Nate's-sorry, our house, Nate showed me around the, and after that I went to my room, and unpacked. It didn't take that long, it was only two suitcases after all. Once I was done I had looked around my room. The room was a baby blue and the bed sheets were white. I also had a small book case. Sadly I couldn't fill it with my books, because I had to sell them all, but it was a nice to know Nate remembered that I loved to read. I was pulled from my thoughts when I finished my waffles.

I stood up and put my plate in the sink, I could wash them when I get home. I grabbed my keys that Nate gave me last night, and some money for the subway- I think it is called the Tube here, whatever- and walked out.

* * *

After about an half hour of looking for a bookstore and refusing to enter Barnes and Noble, I finally found a nice small bookstore. The store was small, and it's shape reminded me of Ollivander's in Harry Potter. The paint was peeling, but I still made out a name, Rainy Day Books. I start smiling and open the door and enter. The first thing I notice is the smell of books, musty but relaxing. My smile widens and a venture into the store. The dust in the air made pretty patterns in the sunlight as I waved my hand in front of my face.

As I slowly trek further into the store, the smell of old books grow. Soon I find myself unable to see the front of the store, but that doesn't matter because I spot a one of my favorite books I have to sell. The Wide, Wide World, I squeal and run over to the shelf. I grab the book, open it, and read. I haven't even read two words before I hear something. Not something, someone. By the sound of it, it was a guy chuckling. I look for the person chuckling and come face to face with startling blue eyes, and a head of messy black hair.

"Little excited for books, aren't we now?" He had a nice and gentle voice, British sounding like everyone else's here, but it sound a little different and I couldn't tell why.

"Well, it's one of my favorites." I spoke softly.

"Ah, you're American. That explains it! American classics aren't fun to read, so it explains why you chose that book." What!

"The Wide, Wide World is not a boring book, it's actually qui-"

"If you're looking for a good book to read try Trail of the Serpent. Much more entertaining. Though I do give you credit, any American Classic beats A Tale of Two Cities."

My jaw is hanging open. I quickly close my mouth and try not to scream at the person in front of me. He couldn't have known I cherish the book because it was my mothers favorite. He couldn't have known that the copy I own is the only thing I have left of my mothers besides my angel necklace. Instead, I thought of just walking away, which sounds very appealing right now.

"William, what did you do now?" I look to my left to see a boy walk out of the bookshelves. He is tall, and very good looking. He has nice ebony hair, and beautiful brown eyes. Currently his beautiful eyes were looking at the boy, apparently Will, with one of his eyebrows were raised.

"What makes you think I did anything, James! I merely stated that her taste in books are awful, but at least she wasn't reading A Tale of Two Cities!" Will spoke very loudly, while making wild gestures with his arms.

"William." James spoke calmly.

"Yes, James?"

"The poor girl looks like she wants to pop your head off." William gasps, while James walks over to me and sticks out his hand. I shake his hand. "I'm sorry about him, he gets like that sometimes. I'm James Carstairs, but everyone calls me Jem. He's William Herondale, but he prefers to just be called Will. What's your name?"

"Theresa Gray, but please call me Tessa." I smile, James, sorry Jem, just has a trusting presence.

Will seemed very excited all of a sudden. "Well, Tess, now that we all know each other, let us rid the world of awful books! Also known as A Tale of Two Cities."

I start to glare at Will and Jem seems to understand what was going on, and quickly put a stop to it.

Jem grabs Will's wrist and starts to drag him away. "Well Tessa, it was nice meeting you, but I think we should really be going. Goodbye!" Jem proceeds to drag the unwilling Will out of the store.

After Jem had finished dragging Will out of the store, I look at A Wide, Wide World in my hands. After about a minute I look at the bookshelf to my left, and I see a book. I took the book out, and put A Wide, Wide World back in its place, then went to go buy the book.

"Trail of the Serpent, interesting choice young lady." The cashier gave me a small smile. I just nod and pay for the book. Once I finished paying for the book I walked home with one thing on my mind, I wonder if I would see Will and Jem again.


End file.
